Canon EOS-D30 Review

Working with a D30 (cont.)

(Phil: Originals for all the pictures
on this page and many more are available in Neil's
D30 gallery).

Software

One of the best features of the Kodak DCS 520 is the
excellent software that comes with it. Here the Canon loses. As a photojournalist
I use the naming, viewing and captioning elements of the Kodak Acquire
plug-in (TWAIN on a PC) before opening the images in Photoshop. The Canon
software doesn't re-name or batch caption pictures so a third party solution
is a must for me. What would have taken about two hours with the Kodak
was a four hour chore with the Canon - even using Fotostation 4. I obviously
hadn't established a decent workflow, a must when you handle up to 500
images a day!

Image Quality

The pictures themselves were on the whole really great.
Good colours, reasonable sharpness and even contrast at 100 and 200 ISO,
little noise at 400 and still good at 800. The 800 ISO images were less
noisy than the Kodak DCS ones without using any noise reduction software.
With Quantum Mechanic the two types of files are pretty similar at 800,
with the Canon just winning in the shadows which is where problems will
show up. Having shot under most types of lighting on the first day I had
found the photographs to have pretty good colour which was easily adjusted
in Photoshop. On balance the colour was easily as good as the Kodak images
and image sharpness was as good too. The pre-set white balances that I
tried on day one were all well set up but I found the custom white balance
to be largely unuseable. It uses the whole frame and unless you use a
grey card it's a real lottery to use. The Canon images are as easy to
work with in Photoshop as the Kodak ones. Lesson number four: be prepared
to optimise images in Photoshop rather than relying on the in camera sharpening
and contrast controls.

Write Speed Concerns

At the end of day one my final thought concerns write
speeds. The Lexar cards seem to be quicker than the IBM microdrives to
both write and read. I have never been a microdrive fan, mine never really
worked in my DCS520s. I've had no problems with the 340Mb card in the
D30 but the Lexar seems to handle bursts better. This is an un-scientific
opinion, but after two years shooting digital I'm pretty sure that I'm
right.

Day Two

Day two was a lot less hectic, with a portrait out in
Buckinghamshire of film director Stephen Frears ("My Beautiful Laundrette",
"Grifters" and "Dangerous Liaisons"). The quality
of the 100 ISO files convinced me to use the D30 for the big set-piece
portrait. I set up two Lumedynes on the main sound stage which was undergoing
a major set re-build and shot a couple of test frames with the press officer
standing in for him. I got the electrician to rig up and switch on two
big (10k and 12k watts) lights and I was ready. The LCD screen review
worked very well in this situation and I shot some pictures that looked
good on it. Lesson number Five: The D30 LCD is very reliable. What it
shows is pretty accurately what you have shot. Five minutes on, and he
was off to teach some film students. I followed and in the classroom I
put a Canon 550ex, set to slave mode, on a stand with a Sto-fen diffuser.
I had the STE-2 on the camera which was on 400 ISO and shot some live
teaching pictures with the flash on the main subject. Another ten minutes
and we were off to an edit suite where Stephen Frears was working with
a single student. Having a room full of cables, monitors and junk food
makes shooting pictures difficult, but with STE-2 and two 550exs I worked
away at making pictures. By this time I'd been on site for two hours and
shot pictures for only 20 minutes.

Back in the office I was determined to refine the workflow
(click here for Neil's
D30 Workflow article) before shooting a couple of product shots on
white backgrounds with Elinchrom lighting and big soft boxes.

Day Three

Day three has been spent shooting portraits of an 86
year old ballet student at her home in Surrey and saying gooodbye to our
editor who is leaving us today. Nothing much new has come up with the
D30 except that I have heard the microdrive spinning, which shows how
quiet it can be out of the city.

Conclusions

At the end of day three I have really got to grips with the D30 and I
am very impressed with it. Obviously it was built down to a price so it
hasn't got a lot of the professional features that the DCS520 has (waterproofing,
fast autofocus, voice captioning, large internal buffer memory, top class
software etc.). There were many features of the D30 that I would build
into a hybrid D30/DCS520 camera, which in turn would go a lot of the way
to providing a feature set for Canon's eagerly awaited professional model
next year. The weight and size of the D30, it's exceptional E-TTL flash
peformance and 800/1600 ISO quality would all go in. The autofocus, custom
white balance and AF assist light wouldn't make it. The D30s batteries
are excellent and will surely be used in the next model, although the
tiny orange catches that hold the batteries in place will need to be beefed
up for a pro' version. A lot has been said about the D30 and shutter lag.
My perception is that it is no worse (and may well be better) than the
DCS520, the difference comes in the shutter release action which on the
DCS is progressive and easy - against the on/off quality of the D30. Any
future professional model will have to match the EOS1v both in shutter
lag and pressure sensitivity to please everyone. For 90% of applications
the D30 shutter lag isn't an issue, and it hasn't bothered me at all.

Finally we come to the big question: would I buy this
camera? Yes. It's not up to the standard of the DCS in most areas, but
the images are as good and the flash kicks butt!! At less than half the
price of a DCS520 it represents a bargain for photographers moving into
digital ahead of the much anticipated fully pro model due within twelve
months.

Im making a dear review on my old cameras, and have the D30 here in hand. Not a scratch, nothing which shows that i used it intensely in 2000 until the next came. I gave it a battery and its still working perfect. Slow? oh yes, but at that time it was really making it possible to hit the button and get fine photos. Unfortunately i dont remember the price then, but it was a lot.

believe it or not, a friend of mine still uses 2 x D30 bodies plus a couple of top of the class Canon lenses for professional sports and wedding work! and he is quite happy with it too! probably will go on using it `till the day the cameras die ... :)

Why not? :) I do have also a 2x 30D Setup: with 18-55 STM, and the other with the 10-18 STM UWA Lens. Perhaps would replace the 18-55 STM onto one 30D with the 55-250 STM for Occasions, just like being into the Zoo, etc.

I found my fine well cared for 30D and mounted a EF 24-105 - gave my wife the set in hand and she is making very beautiful shots and are as happy as if i got a new 1D. Impressing, but must say that the older houses i have make a crossroad with this. I have kept all the old ones - and older than this is unfortunately too slow, week in performance and capture size. Will never sell, and none have a scratch

What a POJ!!! 3 mp ha! Canon must think it's the year 2000. :-) ( I love reading these old reviews to see how far digital has come) It's Canon's early use of CMOS tech that allowed them to become the top seller they are today.

Imaging-Resource
have updated their Canon EOS-D30 preview to a final review (of a production
D30). "While not coming anywhere near the speed or incredible ruggedness
of the EOS 1V film camera or its brethren, the D30 nonetheless shows solid
engineering, and at nearly 3 frames per second is fast enough for most
applications. When you toss in its excellent image quality, generous ISO
speed capability, superb low-light shooting, excellent flash integration,
and compatibility with the full range of Canon EF lenses, it'd be a bargain
at twice the price. "

Neil Turner, Contributing Editor has written a lengthy second look at the Canon EOS-D30. Neil had the D30 for three days, in which time he used it for pretty much all of his professional shooting. "Quite simply I have substituted the D30 for one of my DCS520s for the past few days, and it has been my main camera at all times. Obviously, I have no control over where the paper sends me so the D30 hasn't had it's assignments chosen to suit it at all. I have amassed three pages of handwritten notes and there are a million thoughts going through my brain, so here goes."

Rob
Galbraith has published his appraisal of Canon's EOS-D30 from a photojournalists
point of view, Rob introduces the article, "D30 image quality is
top-notch and 550EX flash photography is a breeze. But the camera may
not be the best choice for peak action sports. This article looks at some
of the Canon EOS D30's main strengths and weaknesses, and includes 14
full-resolution photos."

Jeff
over at DCResource has just posted his own Canon EOS-D30 user review.
Here's what Jeff had to say about the D30 "I don't feel that I can
answer the above question, since this is the first Pro SLR digital camera
I've used. Is the D30 a great camera? Yes, absolutely -- it continually
amazed me every time I used it. If you've got a collection of Canon lenses
and want to go digital in a big way, the D30 is for you. Even if you don't,
and can afford the D30, it's definitely something to consider. Most of
our readers will just daydream about the D30, but if it's in your price
range, you should definitely check it out!"

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